How can I programmatically add a multi-column ListViewItem without any data binding?

Question

I have a ListView with 3 headers, declared in XAML as follows:

<ListView Name="myListView">
  <ListView.View>
    <GridView>
      <GridViewColumn Header="H1"/>
      <GridViewColumn Header="H2"/>
      <GridViewColumn Header="H3"/>
    </GridView>
  </ListView.View>
</ListView>

I want to programmatically add a ListViewItem to this ListView, being able to set the content within the ListViewItem that will go under the first, second, and third columns individually. So far, I have only gotten this far:

ListViewItem l = new ListViewItem();
l.Content = "Content";
myListView.Items.Add(l);

This sets each column to the string "Content". How can I change the code above so that I can add a ListViewItem that will display "Content 1", "Content 2", and "Content 3" under the first, second, and third columns respectively? I tried to look for a SubItem or ListViewSubItem property within ListViewItem, but found nothing.

I assume there's a simple solution, but maybe I'm wrong. Please do not mention data binding, because I only want an answer to the question of programmatically setting the Content property to reflect individual changes in each column.

Thank you very much.

Antagonism

Answer 1

This is not databinding. Think of the Binding statement as giving the column a name.

<ListView Name="myListView">
    <ListView.View>
        <GridView>
            <GridViewColumn Header="H1" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Col1}"/>
            <GridViewColumn Header="H2" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Col2}"/>
            <GridViewColumn Header="H3" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Col3}"/>
        </GridView>
    </ListView.View>
</ListView>

In code:

myListView.Items.Add(new { Col1 = "test1", Col2 = "Test2", Col3="test3"});

Atbara

This will only work when the number of columns is known at compile time. I have still not found a solution to add an array of strings whose count is known at runtime – Monotheism

Hey @Monotheism - You can do this programmatically in your code behind, but I don't think you can do it declaratively in your XAML. – Atbara

Answer 2

In winforms here is what you do.

You have to set the column headins first, otherwise nothing will show. The add the list view items using a string array.

public partial class Form1 : Form
{
    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
    {
        base.OnLoad(e);

        listView1.View=View.Details;
        //Set Columns
        listView1.Columns.Add("Col1");
        listView1.Columns.Add("Col2");
        listView1.Columns.Add("Col3");
        //Fill Rows
        ListViewItem lvi;
        lvi=new ListViewItem(new string[] { "A", "B", "C" });
        listView1.Items.Add(lvi);
        lvi=new ListViewItem(new string[] { "D", "E", "F" });
        listView1.Items.Add(lvi);
        lvi=new ListViewItem(new string[] { "G", "H", "I" });
        listView1.Items.Add(lvi);
    }
}

a screenshot of the result is

Selfsupporting

I'm getting this error: 'System.Windows.Controls.ListViewItem' does not contain a constructor that takes '1' arguments.' I'm using WPF. Perhaps I forgot to specify that. I wish your solution worked though. It would make it so much easier. – Antagonism

Could you please update the image link? It's dead right now. Thx – Julee

This answer works only for winforms. Updated the answer with new screen shot. – Selfsupporting